English Chess Forum

I will pick up most of the requests/questions/ideas posted above as soon as possible. Also,I shan't be ignoring future posts. As I stated above the project is in a flux at this moment. I will respond when I can be more specific in my answers. I will be keeping graders and organisers up to date on th...

Rightly or wrongly I had assumed that a lot of those who did not respond, didn't care much either way. I can't help with the actual numbers behind the percentages. I can confirm that the ECF did check for multiple responses. At most they could be counted on one hand, but it is likely that there were...

The ECF recognises that monthly grading will only work if we abolish much workload that graders do at present. We have to develop tools that can facilitate this desire. Brian, can I ask: what tools do you have in mind? Fair request! Given the resources we have, the new system will evolve rather tha...

At present there is no specification available. Conspiracy theories were out in force at a recent County AGM. Bullet points ECF want to force everyone to use its LMS ECF want to abolish graders...... The ECF will not force everyone to use LMS. I expect the LMS to be used in pilot phases of the proj...

At present there is no specification available.

We have been alerted to this issue and are looking into it. It should be sorted in time for the August update.

Brian Valentine
Manager of ECF Grading

From page 1 of the Grader's Guide: "Reporting a league in two halves is technically straightforward. You send a half-finished result file at the halfyear, then the same file again in its final form - with all the season’s results in - when the league is complete. Both files must have the same Event ...

Nothing is in stone yet, but our current planning assumes that an August 2020 "3 digit list" will be published for those requiring an August list for the 2020-1 season. This will gives leagues a season to see how monthly grades are working in practice, before commiting to changes (for 2021-2). Brian...

Nick, Your formula is correct and I agree with your proposed change.

You have calibrated the system so that the expected score per game is (difference in ratings)/200 + .5. The Elo system is calibrated to about (difference in ratings)/k + .5, where k is somewhere between 700 and 800 depending where you sit on the FIDE/ECF conversion debate. I'd suggest that your "20"...

At the moment I am considering (for August 2019 onwards) FIDE rating the third section at Hampstead, this will probably be Under 1700 (and you would also have to be Under ECF 135). What do you think? As in the other sections, all players will ideally be ECF Gold members or pay a £10 supplement to t...

Having reflected overnight I am not going to write at further length. I think my point has been made and I stand by it. What most forum regulars will not have seen is a message Angus French sent to the graders mailing list (where all replies then bounce backwards and forwards to all recipients) abo...

I'm not suggesting that the ECF starts paying volunteers. It's more a matter of determining what bronze members get in value. So are you suggesting that if the ECF's membership scheme were abandoned tomorrow, the volunteers would all down tools? I'm not trying to be argumentative, just wondering wh...

My main criticism of the table produced at Council and repeated here is that the membership get substantial benefit from all the voluntary work put in. Surely it washes through with the advantage that there's no VAT. Thus add to Expenditure "Cost of grading" add to Income "Value of Unpaid work on g...

But I swallowed at least some of the `grassroots players are being taxed to pay for international chess` argument that was not entirely dissimilar to the `leaving the EU will free up 350 billion for the NHS` claim ... and now has as much credibility. The ECF's principle source of finance is levies ...